WHO WILL FEEL MORE SEPARATION?

[The following is an excerpt of a darśana with Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja on May 25, 2012 at Chandigarh, India. Editors’ input: Additional text has been included in square brackets to facilitate the flow of content.]

Devotee: How can we understand separation? It seems very painful. If the spiritual world is nice, it seems very painful that there is so much separation.   

Śrīpād B.K. Dāmodara Mahārāja: She is asking, how can we understand viraha (separation)?

Śrīla Mahārāja: Separation will be understood by your feelings. Every moment you will be thinking [about the object of separation].

Śrīpād B.K. Dāmodara Mahārāja: She will not be able to understand [if you continue to speak in Hindi]

Śrīla Mahārāja: [starts speaking in English] You will always be thinking about him, at every step. When you see his slippers, when you see his bed, his glasses, everything. Immediately you will remember him, at every step. That is real viraha.

As much as you serve, in that proportion you will feel viraha. So if you have not devoted your energy [in service], you will have no viraha. It is entirely dependent on the sevaka, how much he serves – physically, mentally and financially. Everything. Otherwise there will be no viraha.

If you devote your energy to an adopted son, and you have always devoted your energy for that boy, if that boy was to leave this world, you will feel very much [sad] and always feel viraha for that boy. It is easy to know what is viraha. You are always thinking about him.

So [how much viraha we experience] is the proof – whether I have served Gurudeva or not. [Any act is considered] Service when it is performed from the core of the heart. I give something [as a one-off], then that is not service. It is a kind of energy that one devotes. Then gradually you may go there by this process [if you keep devoting your energy].

For instance, if a street dog comes to your house, and if you feel like, then you offer roti, rice. You keep feeding the dog like this. If another dog bites that very dog, then you protest. Is that dog your relative? So why do you protest? Because your energy was devoted towards the dog. So it [viraha] entirely depends on the energy devoted by the devotees.

Usually, your eyes, your nose, your ears, everything you engage in the service of the Lord automatically. You become attached according to your devotion. It does not depend on how long ago you have joined the maṭha; it entirely depends on how much you are able to devote your energy to the maṭha and to Gurudeva.